Neiko, Havanese

Little Lost Dog...
LA Reid

Lost Dog is the true story about the day Neiko ran away. Finding a missing pet is worse than looking for a needle in a haystock. Needles don't know how to hide - dogs do. And they do it so well.

Neiko was soon to become a miracle dog - the hard way. He was just over one year old and I was going out of town for the day. A friend took him overnight and was going to drop him at my office in the morning. I was driving back home when I learned Neiko was not at the office. I called my friend and she started crying hysterically. She couldn’t even talk. Not a good sign. Fear gripped me immediately. I knew it was about Neiko. Was he dead – what had happened? I called my daughter and asked her to find out what was happening.

In seconds, my cell phone rang. My daughter said my friend’s husband left a door open and Nieko ran out. He had been gone for over six hours. They lived close to the interstate and all streets in their area were very heavily trafficked. My heart sunk. I knew how hard it was to find a run away dog. I had previously owned one and it was a nightmare. Perhaps that experience prepared me for what I needed to do.

I drove as fast as I could, probably faster than I should have but there were only a few daylight hours left. After dark it would be impossible to find him. If Neiko was still alive, he would never survive overnight in that area. It was full of swamps and alligators. The "if he was still alive" was pounding in my head. It would be dark in three hours.

When I arrived at my friend’s house, I was told they saw Neiko go straight down the street. I went to the nearest neighbor’s houses, literally begging them to please watch for him and call me if they see him. I needed flyers quickly. I really needed help so I called my son-in-law. He and my 11 year old granddaughter joined in the search. She made flyers and posted them throughout the area. They stopped cars, talked to walkers and knocked on doors.

I also stopped every car that I could. One person said they had seen him around noon, heading down a very heavily trafficked street about a mile away. I went to the first subdivision off that street, knocked on doors, talked to drivers and walkers. Then I went to the second development. Two young girls were riding on a golf cart. They stopped in a driveway and went into the house. I knocked and went inside. I explained the situation to their mother and the girls said they would ride around the area and let me know if they found him. Time was slipping by too fast and there were no real leads.

My daughter, Bo's mom, worked long distance. She started calling all the homes in the neighborhood. Every effort was made to find Neiko. The sun started to set and my heart was pounding so hard I could barely breathe. There were only minutes left. I called the girls who had the golf cart and asked them if they could please take a drive around again. They said they would. By then I was crying and everything seemed so hopeless. There were huge fields of underbrush where he could lie down and disappear forever. Traffic, miles of roads and wild animals. He was just a tiny baby, lost and afraid. Lost dogs tend to run on the streets then hide. The success rate is very low in situations like this.

Then my cell phone rang. The girls said they spotted Neiko and a friend of theirs was trying to catch him. They gave me directions and I headed to the area. When I got there, no one was there. I called them again, and they said Neiko had run away from their friend but he was still trying to catch him. Then I heard screams. They had found him! I was praying so hard that it was Neiko and not some other dog.

As I sped down the road, I knew this was my last chance. If it wasn’t him, he probably would never be found. As I pulled up to their house, a boy was holding what looked like a scraggly brown dog. I jumped out of the car and ran toward him. It was my baby. Filthy, bleeding and crying, but alive. The thanks yous for saving his life would never be adequate. I gave them what cash I had as a reward and they seemed as thrilled as I was just to have found him.

I drove home while holding him tightly. I bathed him very carefully. He had worn the pads completely off his feet and could not walk. His fur was matted with mud, burrs and sticks and he smelled terrible. But he was alive.

The next morning he went to the vet. They ran blood work and checked him from stem to stern. His feet had to be bandaged and treated for infection. His bandages made him look like all four legs were broken. He needed antibiotics, more pills, powders and lots of TLC. For the next two weeks, he hobbled on his little sore feet. The medication kept him sleepy and he had no energy but it was amazing how well he adjusted. It was about two months before he fully recovered and the experience made us even closer than ever.

Update June 2009. I received a phone call from AKC. The operator was very excited when she told me someone had found my dog. At the time, Neiko was sitting next to me so I drew a blank. The AKC operator gave me the name and phone number of the person who thought they had my dog. When they said Apopka, Florida I had just been in that area a few days earlier and my daughter lived near there.

I called my daughter and before I could explain what happened, she was crying and said Bo, her little dog ran away and she thought he had been killed. I told her no he hadn't, realizing the dog reported to AKC was Bo, but she hung up before I could tell her. So I called the people who thought they had Neiko, they said someone just came to their house - it was my daughter. I thanked them profusely, as did my daughter. Bo was safe and AKC came to the rescue. I highly recommend obtaining an AKC identification for your dog. They have operators on duty 24/7 in case you lose or someone finds your dog.

Source: http://www.rhinestonepuppydog.com/lost.html